Revised NO FAKES Act: counter-notice and what it means for APIs

The revised NO FAKES Act, introduced in May 2026 by Senators Blackburn and Coons and Representatives Salazar and Dean, keeps the core idea of liability for unauthorised digital replicas of a person's voice or visual likeness and adds three things: a counter-notice procedure, an exemption for libraries, archives and research institutions, and technical fixes for streaming music platforms.

This summarises the sponsors' announcement, not the bill text, and is not legal advice. The bill is a proposal, not law. Read 2026-10-01.

What would the bill do?

The announcement lists the bill's effects and what the revision changes.

Which Sume routes involve a voice or likeness?

Avatar videos are script-driven talking videos from a ready avatar. Face swap is a Beta endpoint that applies a ready avatar face onto a public source video. Music 1.0 runs on Google Lyria 3.5 and is text-first, with the prompt steering the song. The announcement is about unauthorised replicas, so the practical question for the first two is whose face the avatar identity is and whether you have their permission.

What does the counter-notice change for a builder?

The announcement says only that a counter-notice procedure is added to better protect free speech; it gives no steps or deadlines, so read the updated bill text it links to before designing a flow. If the bill passes in this form, expect a notice and counter-notice path on any surface where users post generated clips. A takedown flow you build for the Take It Down Act's rules on digital forgeries is a reasonable starting point to adapt.

What can I do now?

Keep a record of who consented to each avatar identity, avoid avatar or voice use for people who have not agreed, and label synthetic voices where a platform asks you to; see TikTok's rule on recognizable voices. Check the current status of the bill before relying on any of this.